(Not) Being cared for in hospital settings: patients' experience from Foucault's perspective.
Débora Thais Siqueira Soares, Maria Ribeiro Lacerda, Ana Paula Hermann
PMID 40608653WHAT IT FOUND
Hospital patients described feeling safe when staff explained care, used their names, listened, and did procedures as promised.
They felt unsafe when identification checks, hand hygiene, pain relief, and information about delays or tests were missing.
Key findings
01Patients described safe care as attention, clear communication, and procedures carried out as expected or explained.
02Patients identified unsafe care through missing identification checks, inconsistent dressings, poorly positioned drains, unexplained tests, repeated venipunctures, poor cleaning or hand hygiene, falls, and skin injuries.
03Intimate hospital care could feel safer when explained in advance, questions answered, and privacy respected.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a single-centre study at one public hospital in Paraná, so the experiences may not fit other hospitals or countries. The sample was 30 participants chosen by theoretical sampling, not a representative sample of hospitalized patients. Patients with cognitive disabilities, alcohol or drug use, social vulnerability, or residence outside Curitiba and the Metropolitan Region were excluded. Interviews were conducted remotely because of the pandemic, and the paper notes this method is little used among people unfamiliar with technology. Healthcare professionals were from sectors where patients had been hospitalized, not necessarily the people who cared for them. The findings are qualitative experiences; they do not show that any communication or safety practice reduced incidents or improved outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these patient-reported themes as proof that explaining care or checking identification prevents falls, pressure injuries, or other incidents. This qualitative study describes how patients experienced safety and risk. It did not measure incident rates or treatment effects.